Oven appliances generally include a cabinet that defines a cooking chamber for receipt of food items for cooking Heating elements are positioned within the cooking chamber to heat food items located therein. The heating elements can include a bake heating element positioned at a bottom of the cooking chamber and/or a broil heating element positioned at a top of the cooking chamber.
Generally, oven appliances are preheated prior to inserting food items into the appliance's cooking chamber. Such preheating can be necessary to heat the oven appliance's walls, doors, and other exposed surfaces and bring the oven appliance up to a steady-state operating temperature while balancing consumer expectations for preheat time, Prior to reaching the steady-state operating temperature, radiant heat transfer from such components can be insufficient or unsuitable to properly cook short run food items within the cooking chamber.
When preheating is complete and food items are placed within the cooking chamber, the oven appliance's controls may have no call for heat because of differences in heat input between preheat and cook modes and the impact on the oven temperature sensor. Thus, the oven appliance's heating elements may be deactivated for a period of time immediately after preheating is complete. When dealing with short bake foods, deactivating the heating elements immediately after preheating is finished can negatively affect cooking performance. In particular, decreased calls for heat over an initial cooking time of such food items can lead to incomplete cooking and longer cook times.
Accordingly, a method for operating an oven appliance that assists with cooking food items after exiting a preheat cycle of the oven appliance would be useful. In particular, a method for operating an oven appliance that assists with evenly and/or uniformly cooking food items immediately after a preheat cycle of the oven appliance would be useful.